Transformers

Caroline Cummings and Georgia Tapert already had thriving careers. Tapert, 27, an interior decorator, runs the bijou home store Georgia Tapert Living, in New York City's SoHo. Cummings, also 27, is an art history graduate student at NYU and a real estate mogulette (her dad's a developer), who's just put her first condo conversion, 11 Spring Street, on the market. (Cummings made The New YorkTimes when, before renovating the beaux arts building known for its graffitied facade, she invited street artists to turn the inside into a giant canvas. A coffee table book on the temporary show is slated to be published next year.)

But amid their busy lives, the two friends—their families live close to each other in Palm Beach—were both moving and were frustrated they couldn't find dual-purpose furniture. "Convertible pieces were either dinky and cheap or made for huge lofts," says Tapert. They became fascinated with the refined, artful-mechanical furniture popular in the 1800s. "Even in large houses, you'd see two-in-one game tables with cranks and wheels. Showing off the craftsmanship was entertainment," Cummings says.

Working with a carpenter close to Cummings' family, they created eight cunning pieces, very reasonably priced—for solid wood, American-made, customizable furniture—between $1,500 and $6,000. "It's what we've always wanted, space-saving pieces in beautiful materials that are contemporary with a classical foundation," says Cummings, who finally has a dining room table that fits: her own.

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